Moscow and Kiev exchanged 35 prisoners each on Saturday 7 September in a historic occasion that saw the 24 sailors captured in the Kerch Strait in 2018 returned to their families. Those freed by Russia also include prominent Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was sentenced to 20 years’ prison in Russia on disputed “terrorism” charges in 2015.
The exchange has been hailed around the world as a major step forward in improving relations between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was of “great importance for the normalisation and improvement of bilateral relations” and the “first step” in finishing the “horrible war”. The Russian foreign ministry recognised the approach taken by Zelensky, a comedian with no prior political experience, as “sensible” and noted his “willingness to compromise [unlike his predecessors]”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the swap was a sign of “hope.” The US President Donald Trump chimed in on Twitter congratulating the leaders on “perhaps a first giant step to peace.”
Since Zelensky was elected in April, he has said that his top priority was to end the war in Ukraine’s east that has caused 13,000 deaths and displaced at least 1.5 million people. Relations between Moscow and Kiev deteriorated sharply in 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed rebels began an insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
An unfair exchange
The exchange was undoubtedly a “significant development,” says Yulia Gorbunova, a Ukraine and Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “For a long time, the Kremlin was not prepared to even discuss the possibility of Oleg Sentsov’s release despite mounting international campaign in his support. It’s momentous,” she adds.
But human rights activists warn against interpreting it as a genuine sign of Russia pursuing peace, highlighting the unfair nature of the exchange.
Kiev released convicted Russian criminals, some of whom were involved in attacks against Ukraine, accused of state treason or had fought in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
The release of Volodymyr Tsemakh, a potential suspect and key witness in the shooting down of MH17, sparked international controversy. Tsemakh, 58, is a “person of interest” in the Dutch-led investigation into the 2014 shooting down over Ukraine of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, that killed 298 people on board, mostly Dutch citizens.
“It was a hideous dilemma,” says Halya Coynash from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group as Ukraine clearly defied international pressure not to release Tsemkah.
40 European MEPs called on Zelensky in early September, not to release Tsemakh, saying in a letter: “His availability and testimony before the joint investigation team is thus of the utmost importance for an effective prosecution by the countries involved.”
The Dutch government issued a statement, saying it “seriously regrets that under pressure from the Russian Federation” Tsemakh would be released.
Moscow, on the other hand, released people widely considered to have been detained illegally on politically motivated grounds. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Sentsov and many others jailed are simply “victims of politically-motivated prosecution and they should never have been imprisoned in the first place […] it is a travesty to see them being used as human bargaining chips in political deals.”
Sentsov spent over five years in prison sentenced on fabricated charges to 20 years in an unfair trial after voicing his opposition to Russia’s occupation of Crimea. In 2018, Sentsov went on a hunger strike that lasted for 145 days to raise international attention to Russia’s political prisoners, causing his health to gravely decline.
Obstacles to peace
Coynash says that peace between Kiev and Moscow will not be realised until Russia ends its occupation of Crimea and releases the remaining political prisoners.
“Repression is continuing, especially against Crimean Tatars and the number of political prisoners is rising” says Coynash. More than 50 Crimean Tatars have been imprisoned, facing charges of “terrorism” linked to their alleged involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir since 2014. There is no evidence to suggest that Hizb ut-Tahrir is connected to “terrorism” and the group is legal in Ukraine, according to KHPG.
Since the annexation of Crimea, authorities have intensified their persecution of Crimean Tatars solely on the basis of their opposition to Russia’s actions, says Coynash.
Just last March, 23 Crimean Tatars were arrested and three were prosecuted after peacefully standing in solidarity with the arrested activists. The wives of Crimean political prisoners, some of whom have themselves been illegally detained, say that intimidation, interrogation and arbitrary searches by police have become routine in their society.
Struthers writes: “We demand justice for all remaining prisoners subjected to these politically-motivated trials, those who had been imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights, should be immediately and unconditionally released.”
September’s prisoner exchange was a joyous occasion for dozens of people who had long awaited the return of their loved ones, but the international community must not forget the many families still waiting for the release of their relatives.
Image credit: U.S. Embassy Kyiv Ukraine